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Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos has released a statement following this morning’s lively, if not wholly productive, conference call with Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders.

During the press conference earlier this morning, Skelos challenged Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to name specific cuts Silver is willing to support.

“What cuts in spending does he support?” Skelos asked about Silver. “Again, my question is, what real cuts are being supported by the Speaker? And frankly we have the right to know this as we negotiate.”

“Senator, I don’t believe that the secretary of state swore you in as a district attorney or a prosecutor,” Silver responded. ” … You’ve had the power phone or whatever it is for the last 10 minutes, and all you’ve done is ask questions. … You’re willing to raid every fund in the state.”

Skelos followed up on his challenge in a statement, with a handy timeline highlighting the Senate GOP’s public proposals.

In his statement, Skelos calls for a “overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program,” and added that “attempting to solve the state’s Medicaid problems on the backs of our hospitals will not get to the root cause of our budgetary crisis.”

Interesting, as Medicaid and health care spending grew under a GOP-controlled Senate, when former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno brokered the “unholy alliance” with SEIU 1199, defending health care spending in 2007 when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer attempted to make serious cuts to Medicaid.

It’s clear from today’s public conference call to discuss passage of a deficit reduction plan that Senate Republicans have publicly proposed real spending reductions for more than six weeks now because we recognize that spending has to be cut to put our fiscal house in order. (See attached chart).

Not surprisingly, the only conference not to advance spending reductions are the Assembly Democrats, who along with the Senate Democrats and the Governor enacted a budget that raised spending to unsustainable levels, producing the mid-year deficit we face today. The Speaker claims to support cuts, but hasn’t offered any. After publicly saying he could support the Governor’s health care and Medicaid cuts, he raised new questions today about what he and his colleagues would support.

Medicaid is already the single largest spending area in the State Budget. According to the Division of Budget, General Fund spending on Medicaid will more than double in the next two years, growing from $6.2 billion to $13.6 billion, as the federal stimulus monies go away. And, in the next year alone the number of Medicaid recipients is expected to increase by 10 percent, to a total of 4.8 million New Yorkers.

Until we get serious about achieving dramatic reform of Medicaid, we will continue to have budget deficits well into the foreseeable future. Simply put, New York has a gold-plated Medicaid program which is unaffordable.

That’s why Senate Republicans have called for an overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program, including scaling back the optional Medicaid services offered in New York, freezing scheduled expansions of certain programs, and reinstating the fraud protections removed by Democrats in the Budget that could save taxpayers more of their money.

Attempting to solve the state’s Medicaid problems on the backs of our hospitals will not get to the root cause of our budgetary crisis.

However, immediate passage of the initiatives we’ve recommended to reduce Medicaid spending are critical to our efforts to close the deficit and put New York on sound fiscal footing, and I urge the Governor, Assembly and others to support them when we reconvene next week.

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DRP Timeline

9/23/09 – Leaders Meeting: Paterson predicts $2.1 billion deficit will grow to over $3 billion. Senator Skelos is the only leader to offer any substantive proposals to reduce the deficit including cutting back $2.2 billion in legislative adds in the 2009-10 budget; reducing state agency spending by five percent; consolidations of state agencies; and selling surplus state property.

10/14/09 – Senate Republicans formally release their DRP plan which includes:
> Cutting back the $2.2 billion in general fund spending added to the 2009-10 budget by legislative Democrats;
> Cutting state agency non-personal services by ten percent to save $480 million;
> Freezing state purchases of recreational lands to save $78 million;
> Freezing planned Medicaid expansions to save $200 million;
> Reinstating welfare and Medicaid anti-fraud protections to save $34 million;
> Cutting Medicaid optional services to save $150 million; and
> Cutting state agency contract balances by five percent to save $300 million.
10/15/09 – Governor Paterson announces two-year, $5 billion DRP, which includes several proposals included in the Senate Republicans’ plan, including across-the board agency reductions and more aggressive Medicaid fraud protections. Governor Paterson’s proposal also includes a spending cap, which Senate Republicans passed twice last year and offered as an amendment to this year’s budget.
10/16/09 – Assembly Republican Leader Kolb puts forth “conversation starters” for over $3 billion in savings including:
> Across-the-board reduction in mid-year State Operating Funds ($2.5 billion);
> Consolidating certain administrative agencies ($241 million);
> Remove a state mandate from local governments so they can decide which optional Medicaid services to provide ($1 Billion), as proposed by Senate Republicans;
> Reduce Non-Personal Services across all state agencies ($500 million), as proposed by Senate Republicans;
> Reduce Personal Services across all state agencies, focusing on appointed administrative positions ($175 million);
>Eliminate Legislative Earmarks ($100 million); and
>Eliminate funding for state government to buy up more private land ($30 million).
10/21/09 – Leaders Meeting: Senator Skelos outlines Senate Republican plan and points out similarities in the Governor’s proposal. Governor asks to address Joint Legislature. Senate Democrat Leader Sampson makes one suggestion to refinance tobacco bonds, which Paterson calls a non-starter. Assembly Democrats offer no proposals to reduce the deficit.
10/29/09 – Leaders Meeting: Senator Skelos announces agreement on $2.1 billion of Governor’s plan, and announces additional cost savings included in Senate Republican plan. Assembly Democrats still have offered no proposals to reduce the deficit. Governor calls session on November 10th.
11/05/09 – Senate Republicans release outline of areas of agreement with Governor Paterson and additional proposals to close $3.2 billion deficit.
11/08/09 – Senate Democrats announce a DRP, built mostly around one-shot revenue sources. Assembly Democrats have still not released a plan.
11/12/09 – Governor Paterson holds a conference call with legislative leaders and claims they are ¾ of the way there on agreement for a deficit reduction package. Assembly Democrats claim to support cuts in spending, but no details are given, and to date, Assembly Democrats have not publicly offered any plan to reduce the deficit.

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